This Resort in Mexico Built a School for Its Employees’ Kids

Rosewood Mayakoba General Manager, Daniel Scott, visiting kids in the school he helped build.

Guests at the hotel can donate or volunteer to help at the school, which is only 15 minutes away.

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The Rosewood Mayakoba resort on Mexico’s Riviera Maya recently bankrolled a bilingual school for the children of employees and other local kids, and now travelers (and other philanthropic individuals) can donate to support the school directly.

The school, which opened on August 30th and was dubbed Centro Educativo K’iin Beh, began earlier this summer and serves more than 200 students in pre-kindergarten and primary school, operating five days a week. According to Daniel Scott, the resort’s managing director, roughly 15 percent of the students are the children of Rosewood Mayakoba employees, and the remaining 85 percent are members of the local community. Enrollment is scholarship-based, so students of all economic backgrounds will be able to attend.

Scott noted that the school was financed solely by private donors and friends of the resort, who donated more than $500,000 in all.

“Mexico has been so kind to me over the past eight years, so I felt that the opportunity to build this new school is the least I can do for the generous and beautiful people,” he said. “Constructing the school from the ground up has been incredibly rewarding for me personally, and it has been a privilege to work with so many people who truly want to make a positive difference.”

Scott added that the resort will continue to seek to finance the operation of the school with support from employees and the generosity of others.

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Laypeople can support the facility, as well. Travelers and other individuals at the resort can give back to the school in the form of monetary donations, school supplies, or volunteer work with projects such as reading or computer lessons.

Specifically, the resort offers great opportunities for guests to volunteer; because the school is only 15 minutes away, visitors can shuttle there to get involved for a day.

The school’s curriculum is special in that it is fully comprehensive, teaching subjects and skills including reading, writing, math, and science in both English and in Spanish. Scott said the school also aims to help students understand they can accomplish anything, no matter what their economic backgrounds or family circumstances might be.

“We are so proud and humbled to play a small role in the enrichment of the lives of our families at Rosewood Mayakoba and the community as a whole,” Scott said.

It’s also worth noting that the school’s name—K’iin Beh—means “toward the sun” in Mayan. A name that evokes both the local language and the progression of learning. You can’t get much more representative of the local community than that.